Methodology statistic
The data analysed and provided by WAM comes from three sources:
- archived online interviews conducted with people on the Polish-Belarusian border reporting a need for support
- first-hand information provided to us by organisations, informal initiatives and individuals providing support in the Podlaskie and Lubelskie voivodeships
- in-depth interviews conducted by WAM with people who have experienced pushback or other forms of violence at the border
We would like to thank all humanitarian organisations operating in the Polish-Belarusian border area and persons cooperating with them for providing us with reports on their interventions. Special thanks are due to all people on the road who decided to share their own experiences with us.
Humanitarian workers and those working with them emphasise that the difficult context and ethics of their work often prevent them from obtaining more detailed information about the stories and situations of people on the move. During interventions, many are in such a poor psycho-physiological state that it is not possible to obtain more data without putting them at risk of retraumatization or making them feel that they owe humanitarian organisations any answers to their questions by virtue of receiving material or legal support from them.
For this reason, the data we receive is often fragmented and does not provide a complete picture of the situation. Particularly in the case of pushbacks, we are only able to gather the most information during in-depth interviews, so they often arrive late.
Definitions of the categories used:
Requests – the total number of persons on the move reported to WAM who needed support at the Polish-Belarusian border.
Children – all persons whose confirmed or declared age is 0-18 years.
Unaccompanied minors — Persons under the age of 18 travelling without an adult legal guardian, and therefore also minors travelling with older siblings or other relatives who are not their guardians under the law of Poland.
Requests from Sistiema — reports of persons staying in the strip of land between the border fortifications of Poland and Belarus, commonly referred to as the sistema.
Aid provided — total number of people reached by organisations and entities operating in Podlasie who agreed to share information with us (GG Ocalenie, unaffiliated residents and inhabitants of Podlasie, collectives, individuals, POPH).
Pushbacks – situations in which persons on the move who crossed the border outside the border crossing point were returned to Belarus without being allowed to submit asylum applications. We count pushbacks reported to us by people who experienced them in person or witnessed them directly.
Violence in Poland — reported cases of violence experienced directly by persons on the road, the perpetrators of which, according to the victims’ accounts, were members of the Polish uniformed services: Border Guard, Police, Polish Army, Territorial Defence Forces.
Violence in Belarus — forms of violence directly experienced by persons on the road, the perpetrators of which, according to the victims’ accounts, were people belonging to the Belarusian uniformed services.
Interventions — number of humanitarian interventions undertaken by field teams in response to a report of a need for assistance or a chance encounter of persons on the road in a border area.
Deceased — number of persons on the move who died between August 2021 and the present day, whose bodies were found on the Polish or Belarusian side of the border.
Age
minors
unaccompanied minors
persons over 45 years of age
senior citizens aged 60 and over
Medical reasons
pregnancy
chronic illness
disability
Protection Needs
(virtually impossible
to identify at this stage)
victims of sexual violence
victims or persons subjected to gender-based violence
victims of torture
victims of human trafficking
